Scott Pruitt is just the symptom. The disease is Trump

President Trump with then-Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt in June 2017, after Trump announced his decision for the United States to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

Photo: Win McNamee

Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt isn’t the first Trump Cabinet member whose high living on the public dime and questionable ethics led to the hot-water pool, and he won’t be the last.

Those guys do not understand that public service requires a certain degree of personal sacrifice. You can make and spend all the money you want before going into office, and you can make even more money after you get out. But while in office, you have to at least look like you’re traveling in coach and eating with everyone else in the employee cafeteria.

Pruitt should have known better: He was the attorney general in Oklahoma and a state legislator before that, so he ought to have had some grounding in public ethics. (I know, you probably wonder whether Oklahoma even has an ethics policy. But it does, along with a state Ethics Commission.)

And forget about any of this being an embarrassment to the administration. Donald Trump will continue to put sycophants in high places. The only standards his appointees are required to meet are, be loyal to Trump and do what Trump needs you to do. And to be prepared to walk the plank when things go bad.

My money is on Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was vetted for the opening that eventually went to Neil Gorsuch, he’s a Yalie, and he’s been around Washington for years, which riles the hard-right conservatives but will reassure the senators who have to vote on him.

He was also a clerk once for Kennedy, and I have to think there was a wink and a nod from Team Trump in Kennedy’s direction that helped convince him it was OK to retire.

Doodle dandy: The Fourth of July holiday has morphed into the Fourth of July week. I didn’t really realize that until I tried to do business Monday and couldn’t get anyone to return calls.

The upside was that walking in San Francisco was like taking a trip back in time, to when you could actually get around without having to dodge skateboards, scooters, bicycles and clueless Uber and Lyft drivers.

Even the homeless seemed to go on vacation, because the streets were not nearly as cluttered as they have been.

Sparkler: For the first time in three years, the San Francisco fireworks show wasn’t socked in by fog. It made for an even better party than usual at the annual gathering of the city’s foreign consulate corps in the Fairmont Hotel’s Crown Room.

City protocol chief Charlotte Shultz outdid herself, having the fireworks noise piped into the room. It made for terrific sound effects as diplomats from 71 countries dined on classic American fare — homemade chili, fried chicken, creamed corn and Napa wines.

Mayor-elect London Breed made them all feel at home. One of the consuls general said to me, “Do you suppose Ms. Breed brought the heat that dispatched the fog?”

As spectacular as the city’s display was, it was the illegal fireworks shooting up from Bayview-Hunters Point and the Mission District that were the most interesting to watch. And they lasted much longer than the 24 minutes of the official show.

Movie time:“Sicario: Day of the Soldado.” Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro return for the second entry in what’s apparently going to be a franchise. If you’re into stories about off-the-books mercenaries that feature plenty of assault weapons, this one’s for you.

Mark your calendar: As chair of the mayoral inaugural committee, let me remind you that a nondenominational worship service will be held at 6 p.m. Monday at Third Baptist Church and that London Breed will be sworn in at 11 a.m. Wednesday at City Hall.

Two-term mayor of San Francisco, renowned speaker of the California Assembly, and widely regarded as the most influential African American politician of the late twentieth century, Willie L. Brown, Jr. has been at the center of California politics, government and civic life for four decades. His career spans the American presidency from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, and he’s worked with every California governor from Pat Brown to Arnold Schwarzenegger. From civil rights to education reform, tax policy, economic development, health care, international trade, domestic partnerships and affirmative action, he’s left his imprimatur on every aspect of politics and public policy in the Golden State. As mayor of California’s most cosmopolitan city, he refurbished and rebuilt the nation’s busiest transit system, pioneered the use of bond measures to build affordable housing, created a model juvenile justice system, and paved the way for a second campus of UCSF to serve as the anchor of a new development that will position the city as a center for the burgeoning field of biotechnology.

Today, he heads the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service, where he shares his knowledge and skills with a new generation of California leaders.